Home Page - 2003-07-27

...Then it struck, Why not zip each folder before burning the CD ?!
This was indeed a good solution, as it elides both my long file name problem,
and the deep folder problem. In fact, from then on it has become a constant
practice to zip before archiving into a CD. Of course, it is prudent to have
small zips, so make lot of root level folders, instead of sub folders (usually
I prefix the grouping name for the flattened folders, ...).

Recursively iterating over the file system is pretty simple and an useful task.
This is possible as Java treats both a file and a folder as a
java.io.File... Zipping a file involves two steps: One, to put a zipentry,
which is just the destination file path to be recorded inside the zip file (you can
play tricks here!).

...For a long time I was procrastinating to write this tool. But when Venu
asked for a neat task that can be useful, I gave this. Venu, though a new comer
to Java (hardly two months now), but since he was strong in C++, completed this
tool within few days, working just in his spare time. Thanks to him, this
article and the zip tool is before you.